It's official. Neville G. Pinto is coming home to the Queen City to serve as the 30th president of the University of Cincinnati.

Pinto spent 26 years of his professional career at UC, as a professor of engineering and the dean of the graduate school. He will return to UC in mid to late February with a few more years of administrative experience.

Even though he was born in India, Pinto considers Cincinnati his hometown. He said his wife, an alumna of UC, and three children who grew up here are excited to be back.

“This is a tremendous closing of a loop,” Pinto told The Enquirer in his first interview in the new role. “I started my career here over 26 years ago and truly came to appreciate the strength, value and importance of the institution.”

He said he’s prepared to take UC “to the next level in terms of important work, education, community service and clinical care.” And he plans to stay until the end of his career.

Pinto, 58, said at the heart of strong universities is a strong faculty, of which he plans to be a permanent member. He will teach chemical engineering in the College of Engineering and Applied Science until he retires. He said is a “faculty member first and a president and academic leader second.”

Pinto is a life-long academic, but Robert E. Richardson Jr., chairman of UC’s Board of Trustees and chairman of the university’s Presidential Search Committee, said the searchers weren’t looking for a prescribed background.

UC Board of Trustees' Board Chair, Rob Richardson (left) and newly appointed UC President Neville Pinto speak about the job and the search for the new President at University Pavillion on Saturday Dec. 17, 2016 (Phil Didion for The Enquirer).(Photo: Phil Didion)

The university wanted someone who “understands the importance of innovation and inclusion” and saw UC as “a destination, not just a stepping stone.”

Richardson gave four reasons Pinto stood out among the 100 applicants to become the lone finalist.

First, he’s had a track record of innovating, leveraging research and working with industry partnerships.

Second, he’s had experience expanding opportunities for the local community at UC and U of L. “He cares deeply about inclusion,” Richardson said. “When you talk about public education it also has to be tied to access and social impact.”

The third is Pinto’s successful career as a professor, dean and researcher in higher education.

Finally and maybe most important, “He’s very passionate about this institution. He wants to lead here, he’s committed to this city and this university,” Richardson said.

Pinto led the University of Louisville as interim president since July after James Ramsey resigned under pressure. He served as the interim executive vice president and provost for nearly two years before that and as the dean of the J.B. Speed School of Engineering at U of L from 2011 to 2015.

As interim president, Pinto wasn’t interested in permanently leading U of L.

“I want to focus on the importance of the institution rather than a personal career,” Pinto said. "At that institution, it was important that we start from a clean slate of leadership."

He said he was there to bring the university “back to even keel and then move on.”

Perhaps, because Cincinnati is where he wanted to be. One indication of the strength of Pinto's ties to Southwest Ohio may be his candidacy to be provost of Miami University in 2014. Pinto was one of three finalists for that job, the top academic officer on any campus. He was not selected, however; the job went to Phyllis Callahan, who had been dean of MU's College of Arts and Sciences.

Pinto was nominated for the UC president's job and contacted by UC’s search firm, Witt/Kieffer.

“The interview process was an incredibly robust and rigorous,” Pinto said. “I recognized the passion I had for this institution when I was here and folks were thinking very carefully about their next leader.”

He met with donors, faculty, health care partners, community leaders and students – including the Irate8 – who have a stake in the university. Those individuals signed non-disclosure agreements to ensure confidentiality of the candidate.

“I knew when I interviewed that the university had moved on from when I left and become stronger," Pinto said.

Pinto has long academic credentials. He has more than 80 published articles in scholarly, peer-reviewed publications and two book chapters, as well as making more than 120 presentations to scholarly groups. The chemical engineer holds two patents.

He also ran 35 research projects sponsored by government or business groups. One of the research grants in the 1990s studied how to recover radium from vitrified waste at the now closed Fernald nuclear fuel recycling plant in rural northwest Hamilton County.

But Pinto also understands how to get ideas out of the laboratory and into the marketplace.

He won an award from the Louisville chamber of commerce in 2015 for establishing FirstBuild, a GE Appliances micro factory that's in a former storage facility on U of L's campus. FirstBuild is part of U of L's Institute for Product Realization, a center that will promote research and innovation in advanced manufacturing, logistics, renewable energy and analytics and computing. UC will soon be opening a similar kind of venture - its 1819 Innovation Hub, which will be in a former Sears store in Avondale that currently under renovation.

One outstanding example is the result of a shared vision between our president and top leadership at General Electric (GE) that led to the transformation of a former storage facility on UofL’s campus into the very first GE Appliances’ micro-factory, called FirstBuild.

“Typically what we have done at universities is focus on basic research,” Pinto said. “That has to continue, but the demands of society now require that you translate that and move that knowledge to use, more quickly than we have in the past.”

Embracing a student-focused leadership style

Pinto replaces former UC president Santa Ono, who abruptly left halfway through his 10-year contract in June to lead the University of British Columbia. Ono, a beloved leader, scholar and medical researcher, took the university to record-breaking heights. He focused on relationships to build the reputation, enrollment and capital of UC.

Pinto enters the new role with respect from former colleagues and experience working with students on campus he knows well. Pinto earned a doctorate in chemical engineering from Penn State University. He earned his bachelor's of technology from the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi, India.

How Pinto builds relationships with the business community and potential donors will be crucial, especially with the university's upcoming Third Century fundraising campaign of more than $1 billion. The campaign will coincide with UC's bicentennial in 2019.

According to Pinto, a public university's students are its investors and its investment. He said one question gives him clarity when it comes to leading the institution: Is it good for the students?

"The job of just handing degrees at the end of the year is not one I’m interested in," Pinto said. "The president is the one person on campus that can impact every aspect of a student’s life. And has the ability to find solutions for them."

“We need a president to take a strong hold of that innovation platform and make it come alive,” undergraduate student body president Mitchell Phelps said. Someone who makes “collaboration a pillar of what we do here, among the faculty, students and administration."

There’s no doubt Ono made that connection. Recognized as the “nation’s most notable college president,” he was a trailblazer of social media, mastered the art of taking selfies and served as a role model by revealing his struggles with depression.

“Students don’t need a president who’s all over social media,” Phelps said. “It’s nice to have and that was their way of connecting, but we just need someone who’s authentic.”

That could mean being present on the main campus' Main Street every day or inviting students to his office to actually listen to their issues and concerns, he said.

Pinto said he intends to meet students where they are, even if that means standing in line with them for a sandwich on campus. “That’s what I’ve loved to do for 31 years,” Pinto said.

Among the biggest issues Pinto will have to deal with are diversity and inclusion on campus and sexual assault and gender-based violence, according to a student survey distributed as part of the presidential search process.

The issue of diversity includes the low percentage of black students and faculty on campus and tension spurred by the election of Donald Trump, specifically among minority and undocumented students.

“Those are very key members of our university community and if they feel frightened to be here, that’s not good,” Phelps said.

Pinto also enters the office on the heels of the high-profile trial of former UC police officer Ray Tensing, who was charged with the murder of Samuel DuBose. DuBose, a black man, was shot and killed by Tensing at a traffic stop on July 19, 2015. There were racially-charged protests by student and community activists on and off campus immediately following the shooting and continuing throughout the criminal trial. The case ended in a mistrial; however, Tensing will be re-tried next year. Pinto will oversee the ongoing reform of the UC Police Department and likely forced to confront racial issues on campus.

Another issue surfacing at UC is sexual assault and how the university is addressing it.

Phelps said that includes “making sure resources are there, vocalizing new changes and resources for survivors” and offering support for perpetrators or the accused.

In order to tackle those issues, the university president needs to make students feel comfortable, validated and respected.

Ono opened himself up to the student body personally and administratively, which students are looking for Pinto to replicate.

“Be there honestly and open in different ways, ask questions, tell us about yourself,” Phelps said. “When listening to concerns, be able to respond to them in some way…that would gain good traction really quickly.”

Enhancing the social impact of an urban public university

Pinto said he and the university have a particular responsibility to the Cincinnati community because they are part of an urban and diverse environment.

It’s crucial that UC makes getting that education fair and available to anybody despite their circumstances.

“Our society is changing and if we don’t educate a diverse group of students. we will be failing in our responsibility,” Pinto said.

UC’s commitment to first-generation students, which makes up about a third of the student body, is important to him. "It’s a very unique aspect of what we do here and why public education is so important to our society," he said.

Michael Fisher, president and CEO of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, is excited for Pinto to lead UC. “This is a man who cares deeply about the vitality of our community and the potential of all of its citizens," he said.

He said the partnerships among the university, UC Health and Cincinnati Children's are critical to helping the health and lives of individuals, improving the city’s economic development and addressing issues such as child poverty.

“What we can keep doing together in the area of innovation and commercialization is really important,” Fisher said.

Facing fire in Louisville for missteps of others

Pinto said his experience at U of L gave him experience dealing with a crisis or two.

The announcement of his departure comes a week after the university was put on probation for accreditation issues, a sanction Pinto termed "very disappointing." U of L was also hit with sanctions from the NCAA in October following a 13-month investigation.

At U of L, Pinto earned a $655,000 salary – $480,000 in academic base pay and a stipend of $175,000. He requested not to receive bonuses and deferred compensation, because of controversy over Ramsey's pay and a lack of transparency about it. Asked why he had turned down deferred pay and other benefits that Ramsey received, Pinto told reporters last fall that he took the interim appointment to help the university heal. “It’s not about compensation, it’s about leadership,” he said.

As president, Ono earned an annual salary of $525,000 plus additional compensation, including a housing stipend, a car and an annual performance bonus (which he consistently turned down). Beverly Davenport earned $625,000 per year as UC's interim president, plus the perks. She served as UC's provost for three years before taking on that role.

UC's Board of Trustees meet on Saturday Dec. 17, 2016 to announce that Dr. Neville Pinto will become UC's 30th President (Phil Didion for The Enquirer).(Photo: Phil Didion)

The university is still working out the details of Pinto's potential contract, which is expected to be approved at a special meeting or the next regularly scheduled board meeting in February.